The Plain DealerCuyahoga County Elections Board member Rob Frost is leaving his post.

Rob Frost, one of two Republican members on the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, resigned Monday.

Frost told The Plain Dealer Tuesday that he believes he's accomplished his goal of helping restore confidence in the voting process and making the agency more reliable following years of internal turmoil and well-publicized problems in the 2004 and 2006 elections.

"I went over there reluctantly and a job needed to be done, and I feel we really have gotten the agency running better," Frost, who was appointed in May 2007, said.

Frost, a lawyer and paid chairman of the county's Republican Party, said the timing is driven by "professional and political reasons." His last day is April 15.

Frost said he plans to continue leading the local party, though he didn't specify what issues contributed to his decision to leave now. He has been actively pushing Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel of Lyndhurst to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He's also been an outspoken supporter of controversial voter identification requirements that some say could suppress voter turnout.

Frost worked with his colleagues to bring about voting reforms and organizational changes to the agency. In 2008, following a smooth presidential election, then-Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner removed the board from administrative oversight and praised the board's effort to "work together tirelessly to provide an elections system that voters in Cuyahoga County and all of Ohio can be confident in."

Frost said he will convene a county Republican Party meeting in the next two weeks to nominate and recommend his replacement to Secretary of State Jon Husted, who officially fills board vacancies.

In his resignation letter to board director Jane Platten, Frost pledged to remain "fiercely committed" to election integrity and reliability.

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